Chapter 2

Nothing could enrage a married female insect more than offending his male master right in front of him. And Que Rong's words were an offense among offenses—nothing short of an insect-killing, soul-crushing blow, grinding Bin's dignity and pride into the ground.

More frighteningly, perhaps Que Rong had hit the mark.

A boom went off inside Bin's head. His mind went blank for nearly three seconds, and during that time, his eyes had already changed into the vertical pupils of an insect in his fury. Black carapace covered his insect-transformed right hand as he put his whole strength into a merciless punch at Que Rong's left cheek.

Hooked...

Prepared for it, Que Rong leaned back to dodge the punch, then raised a leg and kicked Bin back.

Because his leg had not transformed into insect armor, the frontal kick did not cause Bin much pain. The unnatural provocation, the strange restraint in that kick—every anomaly was screaming a red alert over Bin's head. He could even vaguely see the crafty satisfaction of a scheme succeeding in Que Rong's eyes. But with rage clouding his mind, he could not spare a thought for any of it. The moment he barely regained his footing, he roared and charged again.

The blond military female insect had only just recovered from the shock of seeing his idol vanish before his eyes and hurried down the stairs to the first-floor lobby. Before he could even catch his breath, the farce of several female insects brawling at the southwest entrance nearly made him choke on it. His brain crashed for five seconds. Wisely realizing that he could not wade into his idol's mess, he silently slipped back upstairs.

After Bin and Que Rong came to blows, the two military female insects traveling with Bin saw that Bin seemed unable to win and immediately stepped in to unfairly gang up on Que Rong. Que Rong gave each of them a punch without discrimination, along with a cold sneer. How could the two military female insects endure such humiliation from an insect stripped of his military status? What had begun as a one-on-one fight swiftly became a four-person brawl.

As though the spectacle were not large enough already, Que Rong "accidentally" struck several innocent military female insects passing by during the fight. Those who were more rational and even-tempered accepted their bad luck and moved aside to watch. Those with bad tempers who refused to take a loss simply joined the fray. Never mind who had hit them—they hit any insect they saw.

More than a dozen female insects raised hell before the southwest entrance. The two guards on duty outside rushed in to restore order, only to be sent flying three meters away by a kick from who knew where.

By the time a group of insects arrived at the administrative building lobby with Xie Yanxing, the situation had completely spun out of control. The director of the military insect affairs office, walking at the front to lead the way, immediately turned black as a pot and roared, "What is going on? Stop it, all of you!"

The vice president of the Male Insect Protection Association looked terrible as well, muttering that female insects were female insects after all. The two female insects from the Upper Planet Confidentiality Bureau showed no expression. Xie Yanxing, the male insect standing farther back, instead watched the melee with keen interest.

Very soon, his attention was drawn to a black-clad female insect with short silver-gray hair. His unusual attire was one reason, and his exceptionally handsome appearance another, but neither was the most important one. The key was that this female insect was simply too good at fighting.

The other female insects in the brawl traded blows back and forth: a punch from you, a kick from me. Quite a few were already bruised and battered. Only he moved like an agile, cunning cheetah. No one got the better of him, yet he always struck before another insect could attack him—twisting one into a hold and throwing him to the ground, or kicking outright. An ankle narrow enough to clasp in one hand seemed, in an instant, connected to a thousand-pound hammer. It thudded into an insect's chest hard enough to hurt just watching; several insects who took a solid kick went down on the spot and could not get back up.

The female insects here were no street thugs. They were genuine military insects who had been trained in earnest. To remain so effortlessly at ease among them could only mean that the silver-haired insect's strength far surpassed theirs.

As he moved, Xie Yanxing's gaze naturally fell on the female insect's rolled-up trouser leg. A stretch of honey-colored ankle appeared and vanished. The raised ankle bone traced a clean curve, while even, firm muscles tightened the straight tendon. As it stamped and kicked, it shifted angles without pause, displaying the beauty of power from every direction.

At last, the director somehow found a loudspeaker and, along with it, brought an entire squad of armed guards. He jumped atop the service counter and shouted, "Stop it, all of you! Otherwise, every last one of you will receive a demerit!"

The guards quickly forced apart the female insects fighting around the perimeter. Que Rong, in the inner circle, acted as though his suddenly restored ears had finally heard the warning. He put away the fist halfway through a punch with exemplary obedience, lowered his head, and stood to one side, neat and well-behaved.

The chaos was immediately brought under control. Only Bin, who had been beaten down the whole time without gaining the slightest advantage, was still seeing red. He had not heard the director's roar at all. Spotting an opening in Que Rong's guard, he immediately threw a punch. Que Rong could not evade in time and was struck in the shoulder.

"Who was that?!" The director of military affairs flew into a rage, pointing at Bin as he shouted, "Name! Military officer ID number! A demerit! A major demerit!"

Only then did Bin snap back to reality, as though he had just realized what had happened. His face turned the color of wilted vegetables in an instant. "No... he—it was him!" Bin pointed at Que Rong's nose and protested loudly, "He provoked me first!"

The director of military affairs glanced at Que Rong and frowned. "He isn't a military insect?"

What demerit could a non-military insect receive? On the contrary, a military insect laying hands on an ordinary citizen made the offense even worse. The color drained even from Bin's sickly face, leaving him white as paper.

Just then, Lieutenant Colonel Luke arrived in a hurry with his two subordinates. His face wreathed in smiles, he squeezed to the front. With the sharp eye for sucking up that he had cultivated over many years, he immediately picked out the tall male insect Xie Yanxing, who stood out like a crane among chickens. Beaming, he said, "Welcome, welcome, young male master. We are honored by your presence."

Then he belatedly noticed the murderous atmosphere in front of the southwest entrance lobby. Turning back, he saw his old colleague standing on the front desk counter with a loudspeaker, his face by turns green and red—a spectacular sight. Luke asked in bafflement, "...What happened?"

The director answered irritably, "A bunch of military female insects started a brawl in the administrative building... and in front of a young male master from the Upper Planet, no less. They've utterly disgraced our Third Planet Central Army!"

If responsibility were traced, Luke, the group leader in charge of the preliminary review of candidate qualifications for the young male master's guard, could also be said not to have properly prepared for the reception. He hurriedly put on a stern expression and swept his gaze around, intending to find the chief culprit and assign blame. When his eyes fell on the short silver-gray-haired female insect at the center of the troublemakers, surging anger immediately rushed to his head. "Why are you still here?"

Roaring, Luke charged up to Que Rong, raised a foot, and made to kick him. "I knew a lunatic like you could not possibly do anything good! Get the hell out already!"

Que Rong had kept his head meekly bowed as though sincerely reflecting on his mistakes. But when Luke kicked at him, he nimbly turned aside as though he had eyes on top of his head, lightly avoiding it.

"You dare dodge?!"

"Lieutenant Colonel Luke!" the director warned sternly. "How much longer exactly are you going to make the young male master stand at the entrance?"

"..." The words young male master were like a mountain, instantly forcing Lieutenant Colonel Luke's erupting volcano back down. He resentfully withdrew his foot. "I'll let you off this time. Get as far away as you can, and fast!"

With that, he immediately turned around, changing his expression faster than turning a page. He plastered a wrinkled smile over his face and continued welcoming Xie Yanxing. But before his enthusiastic three-hundred-word essay of praise could leave his mouth, the male insect smiled faintly and asked in a voice neither high nor low, just loud enough for every insect in the lobby to hear:

"What is your name?"

Even before that question, Xie Yanxing had been the focus of the crowd. Once he spoke, the entire first floor fell so silent a needle could have been heard dropping.

Lieutenant Colonel Luke stood directly facing Xie Yanxing. Hearing this, he reflexively pointed to himself, but quickly realized that the young male master's gaze was not on him at all. It was fixed straight over Luke's side and behind him... on that hateful troublemaking criminal insect.

Que Rong's heart pounded in his chest, nearly jumping out of his throat the instant the male insect spoke. The male insect had noticed him. That was indeed the result he wanted, but when it truly happened, he was so nervous that he felt as though an officer had called him out to answer a question for the first time all over again.

This was the first time he had seen an insect with eyes so profoundly black. Female insects' eyes were mostly light in color, while male insects tended toward darker shades. But eyes as black as night, like those of the male insect before him, were rare in the world. At least, he had never personally seen a second pair.

"Que Rong."

He gave his answer neither servilely nor arrogantly, then silently lowered his lashes.

Xie Yanxing had no particular association with the name, but the military female insects around them instantly erupted over it.

"Que Rong?" "That Que Rong?" "What other Que Rong could there be?" "Holy shit, what does he look like? Let me see!" "Wasn't he stripped of his military status? What's he doing here?"...

The director of military affairs was equally puzzled. "Que Rong? What are you doing here?"

"I am here," Que Rong said with crisp, precise diction, "to compete for the position of young male master Xie Yanxing's guard."

"What?" The vice president of the Male Insect Protection Association, who had stood beside Xie Yanxing without saying a word, suddenly cried out, "No, absolutely not." Shaking his head, he turned to Xie Yanxing. "Young male master, he is absolutely unsuitable to be your guard."

Xie Yanxing found this very strange. "Why?"

"He..." The vice president faltered. Perhaps because nearly fifty military female insects had formed layer upon layer around them, he lacked the nerve to say certain things aloud. After hesitating for a long while, he could only repeat softly, "No. Believe me, he definitely isn't a good choice."

Xie Yanxing gave the vice president an uncomprehending glance but made no comment. Lieutenant Colonel Luke, however, took the vice president's opposition as an opening to go all out. "Compete for what position? You've already been eliminated. Was I not clear enough just now?"

As he spoke, he reached out and snatched the evaluation records from the subordinate behind him. Speaking gently to Xie Yanxing, he said, "Young male master, these are the performance records for all candidate female insects who passed the preliminary physical review. Please have a look. They are all the cream of the crop in our Central Army. Look at this navy—"

Xie Yanxing accepted the papers and casually flipped through two pages before abruptly asking Que Rong, "Where are your records?"

Que Rong froze for a moment, then hurriedly began searching his trouser pockets. Seeing Xie Yanxing's interest in Que Rong, Lieutenant Colonel Luke hastily said, "Young male master, he failed the preliminary review and has already been eliminated."

Xie Yanxing had come to find a guard—that was, a bodyguard—and his greatest requirement was simple: someone who could fight. He truly did not want to see the person protecting him get knocked out with one punch by someone trying to kidnap him, leaving him to negotiate with the kidnapper and rescue his own bodyguard.

From what he had observed just now, the combat ability of this female insect named Que Rong was unquestionably among the very best.

When some female insects fought, their skin transformed into hard, platinum-colored armor. Lesser ones could harden only vital areas; more advanced ones could transform their whole bodies into insect armor at once; and the very best could flexibly control partial insect-armor transformation anywhere on their bodies, as well as achieve more advanced insect-transformed forms.

Female insects with no such hardening ability at all, incapable of transforming any part of their bodies into insect armor, were called sub-females. Sub-females were not qualified to enlist, and physically they were far inferior to female insects. Some insects also claimed that sub-females were slightly inferior to female insects in intelligence and other respects.

Although Que Rong had not transformed into insect armor to arm himself at any point during the fight, when the director stopped the brawl, a female insect in an army uniform had struck Que Rong's shoulder with an insect-armored fist. Judging from the fact that Que Rong had merely frowned rather than had his shoulder blade broken, Que Rong must have transformed his shoulder into insect armor in that instant—and selectively hardened only that part.

Since he was best in the area Xie Yanxing cared about most, Xie Yanxing did not mind giving this female insect a chance even if he had certain shortcomings in other respects.

Before long, Que Rong pulled a small square from his pocket. He quickly unfolded it, then walked up to Xie Yanxing and handed him the crumpled sheet in his hand.

Besides his black eyes, the male insect before him also had pure black hair. It was like dense, profound ink splashed across a riot of chaotic colors: domineering and unreasonable black that instantly swallowed everything, leaving all else dim and colorless. Only that deep, lacquer-black shade remained firmly on the retina, drawing in every gaze.